Core Training | Secondaries and Tertiaries - The Mounds of Identity

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, welcome tonight to this

session. Those of you who are listening

online to this podcast, we're so thankful that you're joining us.

And those of you who are here live with us as always, thank

you for being here. I'm always kind of amazed that

anybody shows up. And so I'm always thankful that

you do. And we're, we've been having a

good time, been interesting studies.

Let me tell you what's coming up tonight.

I've got to do when I say a transitional point here that'll

make sense in a minute. We've been talking about some of

the primary doctrines we must believe in in order to be a

Christian, in order to actually be able to call yourself that,

in order to be saved. If you've missed some of those

episodes, go back, listen to those.

They're crucial. And there's two reasons for all

of this. One is, is obviously I want you

to know why you believe what you believe.

But also from an apologetic standpoint, as we're dealing

with a post postmodern pre Christian culture, how do we

actually address people who don't necessarily have that same

foundation, that same perspective?

So that's why over the last couple of weeks I've shared what

do we really believe about the Bible?

Why does that matter? We need to understand our

authority and what and how can I articulate what I really believe

about this book? If you missed that one, go back.

And then I've also talked about what do we believe about Jesus

and why does that matter? And so if we, if we can

articulate at least in those two zones, we're going to have a

hard time sharing the gospel with people.

So go back and do that tonight. I'm going to move into some more

secondary and tertiary conversation.

So let me tell you what's going to come up like next week.

Next week I'm going to talk about the perplexity of

eschatology. So if you those of you who want

to talk about the second coming, I was told that if I wanted 500

people to show up here on Wednesday night to talk about

the second coming. And so that's coming up next,

next Wednesday. So we'll see what happens.

And then after that, I'm going to talk about the problem of

evil and why evil exists. That probably is a primary, but

schedule wise, that's when we're going to do it.

And so why, why do bad things happen?

Why did that person get healed and that person die?

We're going to talk about all those kinds of issues and why

that exists in our world today. And then in a few weeks, the

week after that, I'm going to talk about spiritual gifts and,

and do they all still exist today?

Are they still active today or not?

We're going to talk about some of those issues because those

are some of the issues that will divide us in not only

denominationally at times, but even within a congregation.

So that's part of what we're going to be doing.

So that's just kind of down the road so that you can be looking

ahead also. I encourage you if you're, if

you're interested in this, I've been getting some feedback on

it. It was kind of just a fun thing

to do that Mike Stock said we should do.

But we've been enjoying the idea of, of we're, we're recording

podcasts to accompany you when you're out walking or in your

daily quiet time. So we have a walking and prayer

podcast. It's been a lot of fun.

We've recorded several new episodes for that, everything

from a general, I'm out walking the dog around the neighborhood

and just guiding you through prayer as you're walking for

about 30 minutes. Or you could do that while

you're sitting at home reading your Bible.

But then we've also done them in the area of worship.

I've done them in the air of how do I pray for lost people?

How do we pray for wandering Christians and active Christian

people? We're getting ready to do one on

how to pray for sick people. How do we pray for those that we

know that are ill and then we're going to be doing 1.

How do I pray the word? How do I pray scripture into

people's lives and that kind of stuff?

So they're, they're going to be about eight of those.

If you haven't tuned into those, they're on the our podcast as

well. So you'll enjoy that.

So those who are listening to this, you may be listening to

those. And so as you get out and walk

Fido, pray, pray for your neighbors.

There you go. I have a former grader from the

seminary who now teaches at a university in South Carolina, a

Baptist school down there. And every day he drives a

certain road. And he sent me this photo.

He said that the only remaining covered bridge in South Carolina

exists on his road, and he drives by it every day.

And there's a sign by this oldest covered bridge in South

Carolina, and it says this. It says the man built the bridge

according to the lay of the land.

And it is neither plum nor square.

And so when you, when you look at it, you can tell.

And I think of that and I say that's, that's some people's

theology. You know, that's some people's

belief system. It's based more on the lay of

the land than it is on some objective truth and standard,

right? And so and so often it

fluctuates with the current topography of the culture or the

current topography of their context instead of the objective

standards of God's word and God's truth.

So it's neither plum nor square. And so I've been addressed well,

what this church believes as well as what we need to believe

as as Christians. But theological mosaics, I don't

want that phrase to throw you. Does that.

Just think about what are those two words for a minute.

The the idea of a mosaic, you know, the art piece made out of

broken fragments of something glued together to make some kind

of image or pattern. Theological mosaics exist in

church life and sometimes within the same congregation to where

this person believes this interpretation of something,

this person believes that interpretation of the same

thing. And there are levels of this

that will either separate us or give us lively discussion in our

small groups, right? And so this is when we begin to

talk about secondaries and tertiary issues in theology,

when we talk about theological triage that we've been talking

about over the last several weeks, to talk about how do I

prioritize, I have to believe, we all must believe this.

We in order for us to be Christians, in order for us to

be Orthodox. But there are some places where

we can vary a little bit and some topics where we can vary a

little bit, and sometimes that even gets more interesting.

That's often where the conflicts occur as well.

And so this is what often defines the very identity of a

specific congregation. This church happens to be

Southern Baptist, and so they're going to be some Southern

Baptist distinctives about Inglewood as compared to a

church from another denomination.

But it can also separate individuals within a Southern

Baptist church like this one, right?

And so how do we do this? So primary issues determine

salvation and how do we to heaven?

Just think of it that way. They determine salvation.

How do you get to heaven? Secondary issues are often

described as they determine identity and where you go to

church. And then tertiary issues often

identify specific personal interpretations of belief and

what we'd like to argue about within a church.

All right. And so, and yet sometimes I find

that there are congregations that are very unified in their

belief about some secondary and tertiary doctrines.

And then sometimes because of that, they actually kind of

raise them up to a higher level than then sometimes they should

perhaps. And we'll talk more about that

in a minute. I've quoted a couple of people

often in this series and I owe a debt to some of the writings

that they've done. One of them is a former boss of

mine, Al Mohler, Doctor Mohler from Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary in Louisville and and he defines

these categories again for us. He says it is the set of 2nd

order doctrines is distinguished from the 1st order set by the

fact that believing Christians may disagree on the 2nd order

issues. Though this disagreement will

create significant boundaries between believers when

Christians organize themselves into congregations and

denominational forms. Though this is his language,

they can stand together on the 1st order doctrines and

recognize each other as authentic Christians while

understanding that the existence of the 2nd order disagreements

prevent the closeness of fellowship we would otherwise

enjoy. So 2nd order issues resist easy

settlement by those who would prefer an either or approach.

And many of the most heated disagreements among serious

believers takes place on this second order level.

For these issues frame our understanding of the church and

it's ordering by the word of God.

And I've seen this time and time and time and time and time again

in the hundreds of churches I've worked with and the thousands of

church leaders I've worked with around the world.

So, so I see these second order things often defining

denominations. And I've mentioned to you in a

previous time together that that there are people who don't think

we should have any denominations and we should all be one united

body of Christ. And one day we will be the our

existence on this planet. It's a bit naive to not think

that there are different opinions on interpretation.

There are reasons for many of our denominations.

And if we begin to break down the difference between this one

and this one, you would say, well, that's wrong and that's

right, which is exactly why these disagreements occur.

And so there are reasons for their existence.

And so and some of those reasons really are significant.

But as you can imagine, some people, and this is a key point

for tonight will raise a second level issue to a what first

level. That's right.

And so it becomes a test of whether or not you're saved or

not. If you don't believe what I

believe about this, you're not a Christian, you're not saved.

And you can imagine the conflict that obviously that kind of that

kind of confusion or disagreement can cause, right?

And so and so they flame. Are they fan this flame of

disagreement and conflict. Gavin Ortlin writes this.

He says in both war and theology, there are battles to

avoid. Most of the battles you could

fight, you shouldn't. The majority of doctrinal fights

Christians have today tend to be over third rank issues or

fourth. He has a different ranking

system. So it would be second and third

for us. We deeply need to cultivate

greater doctrinal forbearance, composure, and resilience.

If courage and conviction should be our attitude toward first

level doctrines, then wisdom and balance should be how we

approach secondary level doctrines, and circumspection

and restraint should mark the third level.

These middle body of doctrines make a noticeable difference in

how we understand and articulate the gospel, though their denial

does not generally constitute a denial of the gospel.

They are not essential to the gospel, but they are often

important enough to justify divisions at the level of

denomination, church, or ministry.

They exert a significant influence over our witness to

and and or and or our understanding of the gospel.

They also lead to practical differences in how we do church

and or ministry, such that attempted formal unity amid our

different convictions will often lead to divisiveness, confusion,

and violations of conscience. Christians will divide over

these issues in certain contexts.

This is a complex conversation, and it is over the years I've

been involved in many a conversation on these levels,

obviously even within a single congregation.

I was recently a an intentional interim.

As some of you know, I've did that for years at a church, and

one of the primary assessment issues of that church was the

theological mosaic that existed in their leadership body as well

as their congregation to the point if it was causing division

and divisiveness over some key issues, including spiritual

gifts. And so one of the reasons we're

going to talk about that is because of some of these

experiences. So as you can imagine, I've

witnessed this over and over again to the point of leaving

it. People leave the church, people

cause division, people even question the salvation, our

fellow church members or pastors or deacons or our fellow staff

members or fellow elders. I'm trying to think if I

anything, well, who have I left out because I've seen all of

that and more. I'm not really sure my fellow

elders are even saved. That's a, that's a quote UN

quote. I'm not sure our senior pastor

is actually a Christian quote UN quote, those kinds of things.

And so one more theologian and we'll get in the word.

It says so, So because we've got to ask the question, because

there can be roots, if you think about this, there can be roots

both of legalism, but also liberalism in these arguments.

That makes sense. And you say that again, you

could have legalism, but you could also have liberalism

depending upon where you're landing in these categories.

And so there's a, there's a balance in there that must that

must be reached. So how and why would fellow

Christians reach such different conclusions?

How can you look at a single passage of Scripture and reach

totally different interpretations?

How can you look at a certain doctrine and reach totally

different conclusions over what it says?

Well, theologian Ryan Putman, he, he gives us a couple of

reasons. He says we disagree on secondary

and tertiary issues for a number of reasons.

Sometimes we read imperfectly. We're just not reading the

Scripture correctly where we we're not understanding what it

actually says. He also says we read

differently, we reason differently, we feel

differently, and we have different biases that we've

brought to the reading in the 1st place.

And so we're going to talk a little more about hermeneutics

and some of that down the road. Sorry for the big words, but

everything from our hermeneutical process.

In other words, how do I actually interpret scripture to

to our emotions and to our traditions play a role.

Some people believe what they believe because that's the only

thing they've ever been taught. And they don't even know that

there are any options because their whole life they've been

taught a certain interpretation and they have no idea that there

are even any others that exist out there.

And so part of what we're going to do.

And so y'all sitting down. So when we get to eschatology

next week, I'm going to share with you at least four different

ways to view eschatology. I know for most of you there's

only one way because you've told me, I promise.

I know, but they're actually more than one way to look at the

second coming. And we're going to talk through

all that a little bit next time together.

So is that going to get me 500? We're going to No, all right,

here we go. But you got to recognize this

isn't a new thing at all. Jesus dealt with this look in

Mark Chapter 7, Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees and the

Mark 7 · chapter mention

scribes and and he he he asked them or they asked him, why do

your disciples not walk according to the tradition of

the elders, but eat with defiled hands and he said them well did

Isaiah prophecy of you hypocrites.

It's not like Jesus pulling punches as it is written.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far

from me in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the

commandments of men. You get that last part, teaching

his doctrines, the commandments of men.

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of

men. And he said to them, you have a

fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to

establish your tradition. And, and, and I'm in places

where where churches have rules and regulations that aren't

found in the Bible, but there's a lot of oral tradition.

Some churches have ghosts and some churches have oral

traditions that they pass on year after year, generation

after generation. So personal biases, traditions,

the only way you've ever heard something explained, reactions.

This is another big one. Reactions against something in

the past you didn't like or when somebody hurts you in the

church. So whatever they believed,

you're not going to. There are a lot of reasons why

we interpret. Even context and culture have an

impact on belief. And I'll talk more about that in

a minute. DA Carson, you might know that

name. Theologian DA Carson once said

this. He said certainly when the

Apostle Paul finds himself in different cultural settings, he

feels free to emphasize slightly different things as he takes his

audience into account. I mean, you can compare his

sermons in Acts chapter 13 and Acts chapter 17 and you'll see

Acts 13 · chapter mention Acts 17 · chapter mention

this in one he's preaching in a synagogue and another, he's

preaching to a very Greek audience on Mars Hill.

So you'll see very different in the in the in the approach, in

the methodology, in the context of what he's saying.

So culture and context can affect secondary and tertiary

issues. For example, as many of you

know, I've done a lot of work in sub-Saharan Africa.

We've in my previous life and part of my current life still,

we've trained a lot of, a lot of leaders in master's degrees and

whatnot in, in sub-Saharan Africa.

So I, we, we, we, we've been Theresa and I've been to Uganda

I don't know how many times and things like that.

We're working with the Baptist seminary there.

And in fact, the librarian son's name is Ewart, his first name is

Ewart. He is little Ewart and I am Big

Ewart. And I just feel sorry for the

poor African kid running around with E Ward Ewart, Ewart.

I'm also assuming I'm paying for college one day, but that's

another subject matter. But for example, in class we

would have, these are leaders. These would be leaders of

Baptist conventions, professors at Baptist seminaries, that kind

of group in one class together. So it's a, it's a, it's an

invitation only, leadership development kind of program.

And we would be talking through some of the issues that were

specific to the African culture. And I saw this first hand in

their homes when they invite me into, for example, they deal

with polygamy. Polygamy is not a normal issue

for an Eastern North Carolina Baptist Church staff to deal

with. But in Africa, it would be a

common thing in their tribalism and in their tribal traditions.

Many of many of those tribes believe in polygamy.

And so the question here's these were honest questions we had to

discuss in class. Is it OK for someone who has

more than one wife to be a a Christian?

Can they be saved? That was a question.

Then could they be a Deacon? That was a question.

Could they be a pastor? That was another question.

And so they were working through it.

And these guys came from 5 different countries and multiple

tribal backgrounds. So you can imagine the

discussion that was going on, right?

And and they reached some conclusions.

You don't have to agree with this necessarily.

I'm not endorsing their conclusions necessarily, but

their conclusion was that you certainly be saved as a

polygamist. God can save people, anybody.

But they struggled with leadership roles for a

polygamist. But the question was is, well,

what do I do? Do I kick out all but one of my

wives and, you know, all but all but one wife's children because

every wife has children and there's wives.

So I do I divorce three of them and keep one.

I mean, it was an interesting conversation.

As you can imagine. I didn't have to do that this

week here. I'm thankful for that.

So if you're a polygamist, let me name some several churches

that you should go talk to, OK? But yeah, that wasn't one we had

to do. But but you can just imagine now

don't, don't shoot the messenger for I'm about I'll give you

another African example. Don't now you don't throw things

those of you online, It's the the the e-mail address is

[email protected]. But but the other question we

got into, is it OK? I'm not just I'm not endorsing.

Is it OK for husbands to beat their wives?

Now you might think what a question.

Well, tribal tradition is very strict on some things.

I have been in African homes where when the the wife brings

out dinner, she brings it out on her knees.

She's on her knees holding up the meal for the men to eat

first. Again, I'm not endorsing.

I'm not suggesting this is not a prescription.

So men don't try that at home, but is it OK for a husband to

meet your wives? And I'm shocked when I'm hearing

this question. I'm like, well, of course not.

You know, I'm just sitting here. I'm, you know, I'm a redneck

from the Ozarks in Oklahoma. Of course, of course you don't

they they, they'll hit you back. You can't do that.

But but they said, but the Bible says we can.

And I'm like, where, what, what are you talking about?

Follow me. Ephesians 5.

And they say that that Christ loves the church as husbands

should love their wives as Christ loved the church, right?

And they're talking about how Christ chastens or disciplines

the church. So husbands, you're supposed to

discipline your wife. And I'm going time out.

Let's have a little hermeneutical lesson here, you

know. But it was a long standing

tradition and a lot of their tribes, even within

Christianity, it was something they brought over from pre

Christian tradition, but it leaked into kind of a

synchronistic type tradition. So you can see that culture and

context should, should matter. There are parts of the country

that I could take you to that I'm very familiar with where

it's King James only country. All the churches would be King

James only. And if you did anything but King

James, you are a heretic and a liberal.

I, I pastored in a town, my first senior pastor.

It was in a town where the First Baptist Church in town had gone

interestingly and a different direction and, and kind of I've

told you stories about having private secret meetings at night

with some of the community leaders for some who've been

here, but but where women couldn't wear pants, where the

only Bible you could bring to the campus was King James only.

And if the woman wanted to speak, they had to speak to

their husband or their Deacon. And I couldn't figure out why

any woman ever went to that church, but they but they were

there. But anyway, so there's

interesting stuff even in the United States.

I can't I, I'm telling you where we're from, snake handling and,

and, and different kinds of of fire walking or all kinds of

stuff could be a part of church tradition.

And so when Ed Joyner first came over to my house before we

moved, there was a black snake on the the back steps.

I reached out to I had a hold of the tail of 1 snake the other

day and he he calls me a snake handler ever since.

So we'll see. So if you have a snake you need

handled, you let me know and we'll do something.

But the point simply this ranking belief and then and even

reaching interpretive imperative conclusions.

Now you got to follow these words.

So in other words, I'm interpreting commands.

These are, these aren't things you can compromise.

These are, this is the way it has to be, right?

And interpreting these conclusions are parts of who we

are often who we have been and frankly where we are at times in

our context and culture, because there are many people who allow

the context and culture to determine truth and to determine

new interpretations. There are certainly

denominations in our country today.

I won't naming I don't have to that once believed that same sex

marriage was a sin and now same sex marriage is just fine.

And and so there are all kinds of things that change.

Culture changes things, times change things.

And so we we we need a better foundation than that right.

Wayne Grudem, who's very famous for writing a systematic

theological textbook, he says this a doctrine is what the

whole Bible teaches us today about some particular topic.

It's about as simple as you get, he goes.

Within each of these doctrinal categories, many more specific

teach list. So we're free to use our

reasoning abilities to draw deductions from any passage of

Scripture, as long as these deductions do not contradict the

clear teaching of some other passage of Scripture.

So in other words, the greatest commentary on the Bible is the

Bible. And so you have to be consistent

through the entire Word with your interpretive abilities.

And so over the next few weeks, we're going to give you some

specific examples and talk about that.

So we want to study and teach all of God's Word.

In fact, to go along with that walking in prayer podcast, we're

also going to be doing some podcasts, as I mentioned, on how

do you study your Bible? Well, how can you how can you

sit at home in the morning or whenever you study your word?

And just some questions to ask, how can I help guide you through

a passage of Scripture so that your personal Bible study is

enriched so that when you're engaging the Bible yourself.

Sure, we can do some of that, but but but what we need to

understand is that a study of interpretation or hermeneutics

and an application to help us engage the Bible in a way that

will be most meaningful. It's going to be incredibly

helpful. And the new sermon series that's

going to be coming in a couple of weeks where we talk about the

seven essentials of discipleship.

We're going to hit very heavily upon how do we engage the Bible

and what's the right way to do that?

But, but we recognize what the Great Commission in Matthew 28

commands us. He says in Matthew 2819, very

familiar passage, he says, go therefore and make disciples of

all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the

Son of the Holy Spirit. But then there's this next part.

And often we don't talk about this next part as much.

We talk about going, we talk about making disciples.

And those are primary pieces of the passage, obviously.

And as a messiologist, obviously, you know, we'll hit

those, we'll make posters of those things.

But we, we can't neglect this next part.

And that is we have to teach them all right.

We don't just teach them some, we've got to teach them all that

he has commanded us. And, and that's a lifetime

journey, frankly, that's a lifetime of discipleship.

And we're going to talk about in our discipleship series how

we're not only being discipled, but how we're discipling others

as well. And so how can I do that?

And, and, and, and that's where our, a significant portion of

our power comes from as we're tapped into his word.

And then of course, his, his authority in, in verse 18 before

that, and then his presence here at the end of verse 20, where

he'll be with us always. But, but this idea that the,

the, there's a command to teach them all these things.

So, so we teach all because we want to know everything God has

told us. We want to know everything God

has revealed to us. And again, that's a never ending

journey. Some of you have been alive

longer than I have. Not a whole lot of you, but some

of you. And, and like me, perhaps you've

read this entire book multiple times and, and I still read it

every every day. And, and yet I still glean

something every day. So this is a lifetime of

learning. Every morning in our office.

We start with the devotion and prayer time with all the staff

and I often will just share a passage from my quiet time and

what God kind of showed me. I journal not and I've mentioned

this to you before, but I keep sharing that with you to

encourage you to develop the some kind of habit to help you.

And so there's nothing spectacular at all that I write

in my journal. They're not nothing, nothing

we're ever seeing, but it just is a good it's a good discipline

for me. But the point being that I want

something fresh for the staff out of the word, right?

Psalm 119, verse 160. Listen to this.

Psalms 119:160

He says the sum of your word is truth and every one of your

righteous rules endures forever. So the word we know the word is

eternal. We've, we've talked about those

kinds of issues before, but every single word, every single

part of this, but we need God's help and we need God's guidance

and careful study and teaching to help us in this because we

really do need to develop strong interpretive skills.

A solid hermeneutic of belief of, of theological triage, which

is that phrase that Moeller created to really do understand

that this is a primary doctrine. And, and I have no, I must

believe this or I'm not a Christian.

And then this is a secondary doctrine, which really is going

to create an identity for me as a believer.

I'm a blank. And that really is going to be

defined in that category. And then, and then those third

levels to where, well, I believe this, but, but Doug believes

that and, and you know, we're not necessarily on the same, but

it's OK because it's a third level thing.

And we, you know, none of us know for sure exactly how that's

going to pan out. And, and so it's OK for us to

fellowship together. And we can still of one another.

We'll poke at each other, we'll debate with each other.

And I know I'm right and he's wrong, but, you know, just like

being at home, he said. Doug, just don't beat your wife,

all right? So we base our salvation again

and our identity on these specific doctrines.

And so for us here we have that doctrine or that document I've

mentioned to you, I'm not going to read it to you, but I just

have mentioned to you to you many times because the Baptist

faith in message 2000, which, which to be honest with you, is

not a creed. It it was just a summary for

the, the I'll be honest with you.

The media didn't understand Southern Baptists and they said,

what do Southern Baptists believe in a document?

To kind of summarize, this is what most Southern Baptists

believe, but at times it's quite general, to be honest with you.

So I want us to revisit a passage.

We're going to spend most of our time in Ephesians 4.

So there was the introduction. I make balloon animals too.

You want to see that? Used to do St. clowning in

Manila. That's a whole nother story.

There's a photo somewhere that we don't want to see.

Yeah, I used to build a juggle. But anyway, so I want to revisit

a passage I've mentioned in some of the recent times together and

it's context for a moment and it's going to help us as we dive

into some of these secondary and tertiary identifiers.

So I want you to think about ways in which you ought to live

out your theology. So we're talking application for

a few minutes. How do I actually live out what

I believe? Because believing something,

knowledge alone is incredibly incomplete, right?

You with me on that. There's got to be more than

that. There's got to be fruit.

There's got to be action. Something's got to come out of

it. You can sit in every single

study. You can come every Wednesday

night, you can listen to every podcast.

That's not necessarily going to make you a disciple.

There's more to it than that. It's holistic.

So when we start talking about discipleship, we're going to

talk about being, we're going to talk about knowing, we're going

to talk about doing in these discipleship messages.

But, but I want you to think about ways you're living at your

theology. And So what, what should your

attitudes be toward God and toward one another?

Even if you disagree, even if you disagree on a secondary or

tertiary issue, how should you still treat one another?

Because I've been in, I've been in theology wars, I've been in

churches that were in massive conflict and, and sometimes they

actually were theological conflicts.

So in Ephesians 4, how should we display our beliefs to the lost

world? How should we walk and work

together within our doctrinal identity as well as cooperation?

So Ephesians 41I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you

to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have

been called. Now here are some

characteristics that ought to describe that walk.

We are to walk with all humility and gentleness, with patience,

bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the

unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There's one body and one spirit, just as you recalled to the one

hope that belongs to your call, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism,

one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in

all. And so Paul's writing to this

church hoping, you know, he's had a he's had a lot to do with

their leadership at Ephesus. And he's hoping that the church

members will remember and be eager to strive for unity in the

church. You got to recognize that these

people were coming from a massive diverse background.

They're coming from all over the place.

A lot of Pagan is in, in Ephesus, paganism in Ephesus.

So you people coming from all kinds of traditions, all kinds

of other belief systems. And it would be very easy to

carry that into the church and cause division.

And so we can agree to get along because we always agree, but not

because we always agree, but because we are surrendered to

Christ. And that's his point here, that

the way you maintain unity isn't just because you, you agree with

one another, it's because you agree with Jesus.

And so Jesus provides us this unity.

And, and that needs to be more important than your secondary's,

if that makes sense. Your, your love for the

primaries, your love for Christ is more important than your

secondary beliefs. And whether or not it's OK for

me to RIP the head off of somebody who doesn't agree with

my secondary or tertiary beliefs, right?

Not that that would ever happen at Inglewood, verse 7.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure

of Christ's gifts. And so he's talking about roles

and giftedness within the church now.

So go all the way to verse 11. And he gave the apostles, the

prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip

the Saints for the work of ministry, for building up the

body of Christ until we all attain.

Here's this idea again, to the unity of the faith and of the

knowledge of the Son of God. So there's a unity in what we

believe. There's a unity in our

understanding of Christ to mature manhood to the measure of

the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer

be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by

every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and

deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in

love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head

into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together

by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is

working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up

in love. And so we we have this idea of

the fact that we're united in our walk because of what Jesus

has brought our unity of Christ. And in Christ we can serve

together according to the way God has designed us so that we

might all work together. Like, even though we may come

from different perspectives, we may have different beliefs about

things, but we build up the church not to criticize or to

tear down, but to edify, especially in the secondary and

tertiary issues. And you've got to understand

that they they were not only plagued from their backgrounds

as as in Pagan worship and things that surrounded them at

Ephesus, huge temples, etcetera, but they also would have been

attacked by false teachers. So there was, you know, much of

the New Testament letters are written in order to counteract

false teachers and false teaching that was that would

taking place in their culture. And so to recognize that this

was a this was an apologetic defense mechanism as well as a

unifier. So you don't bring it in.

Don't let them bring it in. And let's focus upon the

primaries so that we can be united together.

Verse 17 then goes on. Now this I say in testifying the

Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the

futility of their minds. They are darkened in their

understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the

ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous and have given themselves up to

sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you

have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is

in Jesus. To put off your old self, which

belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through

deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your

minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of

God in true righteousness and holiness.

And so one bottom line here is we're to be different than the

blind, lost, Dark World. There's a spiritual blindness

out there. There's a spiritual hardness of

heart. Don't be surprised when people

don't agree with you. Don't be surprised when they

don't understand or believe in the authority of the Bible.

They don't believe that Jesus was either real or that he

really was God Incarnate. Don't be surprised when you try

to share with somebody. And remember, later this year,

I'm going to hit us pretty heavily with some personal

evangelism training. Don't, don't be surprised when

people out there don't understand that, which is why we

have to talk about how do we share the gospel in this culture

today? Where as I say about every

single week, I feel like we're probably not going to start in

Romans. We're probably not going to

start in John, We're probably going to start in Genesis to to

explain who is this God, right? And what do I believe about God

and sin? And how would I even define that

in conversations out there? Because their, their hearts are

hard, their minds are foggy. And then then you see this, and

I've shared this with you before, this replacement idea

that when I shared out of Colossians 3 at some point with

you, we talked about this pretty heavily, that that true

repentance, true transformation requires replacement.

And so again, let me just make sure for those who never saw

this, that when, when, when repentance takes place,

confession and repentance, it's not just that I've been sinning,

I've been doing something I should and I feel bad about it.

The Holy Spirit convicts me and I feel bad.

That's not enough. It's not just I, I've been

sinning, walking away from God, The Holy Spirit convicts me.

I feel bad about it. And I do this about face and now

I face God, which is kind of what the word can mean.

But there's a lot more to it in Scripture and you'll see it

right here. You see, the real way this has

to work is, is I'm convicted in my sin as I'm walking away from

God. I, I, I turn to God and I

confess to him. I say the same things about my

sin that he believes about my sin, which is what the word

confess means. But then I put on, I replace the

old ways by putting on the spiritual disciplines, the

spiritual discipleship. That fills my life with him.

If I don't do that last step, very likely I will fall back,

which is what Paul dealt with all the time.

He dealt with it in Ephesus. He dealt with it in colossi.

These people who came from these backgrounds would often turn

back to those backgrounds and and walk away.

And So what we've got to understand is, is in order for

me to continue walking with God, for me to really understand what

I believe, in order for me to articulate that to a lost world,

I've got to fill my life. I've got to put on the new self

created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and

holiness after I've taken off the old ways.

And this image of clothing being taken off and putting on is

clear. So we're to be different.

But the question is, is are we? Or do we still walk in the old

ways while we claim to be new? But are we really?

Look at verse 25. Therefore, having put away

falsehood, that each one of you speak the truth with his

neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on

your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing

honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to

share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out

of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up as fits

the occasion, that it may. Give grace to those who hear,

and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were

sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be

put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one

another as God in Christ forgave you.

So even though we're not a perfect people and this is not a

perfect church because there is none, I've been in every one of

them. No, not quite, but been a lot.

And there are there. There ain't one of those as we

would say back home and I would still say at my home.

But we should and we must be on some pathway of maturity and

growth and love, including our belief system.

We, we need to mature in our understanding of what we believe

and why. So, so we do we chip away at

each other or do we build one another up?

That's part of the issue here. Will we get angry yet?

We can do that without sin. We might offend one another, but

we can also forgive one another. So even when we have

disagreements about belief, because you might next week, you

need to remember this passage, see and and recognize where we

are because we need to remember we're saved people changed

people, different people. We, we have not because of

something we muster up by our own strength.

That's not how this works at all, is it?

It's because of what God has done.

We're we're one Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father

of all who is over all and through all and in all.

So, so we recognize that we can love, we can be kind, we can be

forgiving because that's how, how God is to each of us.

And that's what our, our, our, our desire is.

So, so Paul had had pretty simple hopes for the church.

I feel like Paul can be complex, but he didn't have to be.

He wanted to build up the church.

He wanted to lead the church to maturity and faith.

He wanted to equip the church to do ministry.

He wanted to lead the Church to love and unity.

He wanted to show the lost world this mature, faithful unity,

love and truth. And if we would do that, if we

would live that out and we would focus on the primaries and learn

to discuss honestly and lovingly with one another the secondaries

and tertiaries, not only would our lives be changed and the

Church be changed, but the world would be impacted.

But one pastor shared this. Listen to this.

This is just an honest testimony from a pastor.

He said. I thought my job would focus on

getting my church members to encourage one another to do what

the Bible commands. Instead, most of my job is

keeping my church members from demanding things of each other.

The Bible never does. So there are a lot of traditions

out there, right? And we get attached to things

for different reasons. I once was doing a, a, a

consultation work with a, a large church in North Carolina.

So that will remain nameless as the city will too, because you

would know this church and they had a, a new pastor.

And in fact, Chuck Lawless and I were working together on this

one. You know, some of, you know,

Doctor Lawless and, and we were doing interviews.

We did member interviews a lot. And I've done, I've done a lot

of these over the years. And a lady came in and she had a

scroll. I mean, it was a scroll.

She unrolled a scroll. You understand a scroll.

I don't normally get scrolls. You understand what I'm saying?

I get notepads, I get iPads, I get phones.

But she had AI mean it might as well have been papyrus.

And it was long. I mean, it just kept unrolling.

And she goes, I'm here to air the grievances of my Sunday

school class. I looked for chuckle all this.

He was in another room. I said, well, that's not really

why I'm here, but go for it. Knock yourself out.

And friends, I've told you a lot of stories.

I think I've told you the story about the time that the minister

of of music was jumping over the table to to attack the pastor

and I caught him in midair and did a body slam.

So I've been, I've been in some places, seen a few things, but

this might have been the most angry, venomous human being I've

ever been around in my life. And I've fought in tough man

competitions in my previous existence.

I've been a bouncer in my previous existence.

But this might have been the meanest, maddest human being

I've ever been around my entire life.

I thought she was going to have a stroke she was so angry.

Spitting out the list of you know what, this new pastor dot

dot dot see? So I'm thinking, man, this guy

must have, you know, must have taken a bat and beat up her

grandma or something. I mean, this must be really bad.

I mean, I don't know what this guy's done.

I mean, I knew the guy, but I'm like, what is it?

I mean, what? Who did he attack?

What did he say? Who did he condemn?

You know what he did? Now, don't get mad at me.

I'm just the messenger, right? He moved the pulpit and the

Lord's Supper table. Don't you know what those things

meant to this church now that everything had a bronze plaque

on it? Because this church has been

around for a while. And, and he went in, There's the

new pastor. And one day the Lord's Supper

table and the pulpit were there. The next day the Lord's Supper

table and the pulpit were not there.

And there was a cool little acrylic pulpit thingy up there

because, you know, you got to untuck your shirt and be cool.

And so I said I was waiting for point #2 you know, but, but, but

don't you know who gave those to the church?

Don't you know who they represented?

Now, see, for her it wasn't furniture, was it?

It was relationships, people who had died, people who had helped

build the church, so to speak, and had dedicated that

furniture. And I can't stand that man.

I can't even stand to be in that room.

I can't even worship my God anymore because of that man.

Now think about that sentence. I wish I could tell you that was

the only time I've heard stuff like that, but it's not.

It's interesting what becomes primary now.

Do I think it was a wise move for the brand new pastor to go

messing around with the furniture without communicating

something about that in a church that has that kind of tradition?

We can we can go down that conversation, discussion, point

of wisdom, right? But I also wonder, so you can't

worship God anymore because furniture got moved.

Now I know it's more than that to him.

I get it. It's it's about the people that

it was about who she loved. And they're not, they're being

disrespected. They're being dishonored.

I get, I get the story. But I see that in church life a

lot to where suddenly something becomes the trigger point.

Why did you leave? Well, and I hear that story

after story after story. You know, the most common person

I've met in Rocky Mountain, a former member of Inglewood,

Teresa will tell you every I go to, every store I've ever been,

100%, every restaurant we've ever gone to, every store I've

ever been in. Over these months, somebody will

walk up to me and say, you're the pastor at Englewood, aren't

you? And I'll go, yeah, well, I'm a

former member of Englewood. Now we're first of all, I think

it's weird that you feel the need to tell me that, you know,

I mean, good, glad to meet you. Sorry, I wouldn't hear.

Not my fault. And what happened, you know, I

never know where to go. And so, but it's it's an amazing

conversation. And then they'll tell me why,

you know, sometimes they're real reasons.

Sometimes they're just mad about furniture getting moved.

So let's focus a little bit. Remember the old saying, I won't

read it in Latin, but in essentials unity in non

essentials, liberty in all things.

What charity? Yeah, attributed to Augustine or

Augustine, Not sure if he really said it because a lot of things

get attributed to him. But, but this whole idea, if we

really need to balance out our, our strong belief, what's a

priority, especially again, remember, this whole series is

based on the fact that within a 10 mile radius of where you are

right now, 74% of the people are absolutely unchurched.

And when I say unchurched, they're not just unchurched

Christian. They're not going to a mosque,

they're not going to a temple, they're not going to a

synagogue, they're not going to a church, they're not going to

anything. 74% of the people who live in a 10 mile radius of

where you sit right now are totally unengaged in religion.

And so we, we don't have the privilege, we don't have the

luxury of being Pharisees who want to debate the law.

We don't get to debate the jots and titles.

We're in a different emergency room situation in our triage.

We have people bleeding to death and they're dying.

And so we have to figure out how to get them the primaries.

At the same time, we want to learn the secondaries.

We want to study the whole word of God.

We want to know the tertiaries and we can discuss them, but we

need to be able to agree on our primary tasks and missions.

So let me go back for just a moment and and remind you of a

list from the about 5 or 6 theological textbooks that I I

summarized for you. So these are doctrines that

would be chapters in some of these textbooks.

You have the word of God or Revelation.

So we talked about that couple weeks ago.

You have the doctrine of God, the doctrine of creation, the

doctrine of man or humanity, the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of

Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the

Trinity, the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of the

church, and the doctrine of last things.

Now there are other subcategories for every one of

these and, and any one of these could be considered some aspect

of it, a primary doctrine. But there are often there are

subsets and there's specific teachings and there's specific

interpretations of almost every one of these to where you could

branch out and say that, you know, here, here are some things

that might be considered secondary and tertiary.

So let me list just a few secondary or tertiary doctrines.

Some of you will say, no, no, that's not it.

Wait a minute, that's primary and it doesn't even you know,

and etcetera. And so just hush.

So just easy, just listen for a minute, you know, just tell me

at Lowe's later that you're a former member of Inglewood and

it all makes sense. So so this list isn't is is not

exhaustive, it's only representative.

So this is not everything by the means but but there here's some

areas that would be perhaps secondary or tertiary.

The way the church should practice baptism in the Lord's

Supper can actually fall into these categories.

Now we believe strongly in immersion.

We believe strongly and I'm preaching on the Lord's Supper

this Sunday. And so as and so we, we believe

in and, and certain ordinances of the church and that they

should be done a certain way. We believe strongly in that.

In fact, you can't be a member here unless you've been baptized

by immersion. So it's just a big deal.

But does that keep you from going to heaven?

Now remember primaries, salvation, am I going to heaven?

This will be a secondary denomination which church I

believe I should be a part of right?

Views on predestination and election, although I know

exactly how all that works and can explain it to you in 15

seconds, Some people have strong opinions about it.

That was a joke by the way, although I've tried before.

Anyway, just remember lines, points, remember that some of

you don't worry about it. I mentioned earlier beliefs

about spiritual gifts and whether all the gifts are still

active today. There are there are words for

this continuationism, in other words, every, every sign gift.

And usually this is about the sign gifts, things like healing,

speaking in tongues and whatnot. And you have continuationism and

then you have cessationism to where certain gifts stopped at a

certain time in history and certain gifts continue.

And this can actually divide a congregation.

I've seen that happen to where the spiritual gift issue was the

division. So in a couple of weeks we're

going to talk about that views of eschatology.

I know there's only one way you're all going to tell me

afterwards. I get it.

Church leadership, organization and polity.

Should you have a a single elder pastor LED model?

Should you have a committee LED model?

Should you have a plurality of elders?

What should you have for some people, man, that that's going

to decide what church I go to. I'm only going to a church with

that kind of polity, with that kind of leadership structure,

with that kind of organization, and people pick their churches.

I'm not guessing. I know people pick their

churches sometimes solely on that.

So it becomes primary almost to them.

Views on divorce and remarriage. There are many different

interpretations and views of that.

You may not realize that, but there are even views of

creation. And I know that's getting real

close, but some, there are possible interpretations.

I'm not necessarily promoting them, I'm just saying that's

true. So the next couple weeks we got

to break down a few of these because they're going to help

define who Englewood is as Englewood who, What's the unique

identity of Englewood? Who are we here?

What do we believe and why? And that's part of the reason

for this series. The other part of the series, as

I said at the beginning, is to equip you to be able to

articulate your own belief when you're out there talking to

somebody who doesn't believe what you believe.

And so as I've often mentioned, the secret to apologetics is not

knowing exactly what they believe.

The secret to apologetics is absolutely knowing what you

believe. That's the key, because I can

never ever fully understand in our world today that's

pluralistic, universalistic and synchronistic what everybody out

there is going to believe. And so, but I better know what I

believe, right? And so again, we're going to

talk about some of this. And these conversations require

wisdom. They require love, which is why

I prepped you tonight with this introduction to them, with the

passage out of Ephesians. So I expect you to behave, be

loving, kind, patient, forgiving.

I know you are. This is Inglewood, you are

great. You are, you are nice.

And yet there's some folks who try to number everything.

They try to rank everything they do and they're always are those

and they, and frankly, there are people who can't stand any

ambiguity. It's got to be cut and dried.

They want a box and it's got to be in that box.

And if it's not in that box, then it's not right, it's wrong,

and we're not going to stand for it.

But be careful about your dividing lines and remain

focused upon the primary because we need to stay united in that

and our lost world and the unhealthy churches around us.

And there are many because I've worked with a lot of them in

North Carolina. They need us to focus and

continue to reach people. By the way, we're baptizing

again Sunday, and we're we're baptizing the Sunday after that

and like normal. So God's working.

Yeah, no, that's fine. So we praise him for that.

Let me read to you a part of an article here.

It's an interesting article from what's called real

RealClearPolitics. I'm not endorsing any website or

anybody. I just want to read this to you.

It's a statistical article. He says the United States has

has old and remains a very religious nation despite steep

declines in attendance at churches, synagogues and

mosques. By the way, I there there's a

staff that came out not too long ago.

Only 45% of Christians attend church in the United States of

America. Now, everybody who claims to be

a Christian, whatever that means, you know, you know that

that could be quite a spectrum, but only 45% of those claim to

be Christian will attend to church.

So it says a majority of Americans surveyed that 58.3%

identified as Christian in the United States, with 36.3 saying

they consider themselves Protestant, 22% Catholic.

Americans who said they belong to other religions or were non

believers, We're all on the low single digits. 3.2% said they're

Muslims, 2.9 were Mormon, 1.9% Jewish, 1.6 Buddhist.

Hindus accounted for about .5. Meanwhile, about 3.8 are

atheists and 3.7 are agnostic. So one point I want to make to

you, because this has always been true.

You know me, I, I work in statistics.

I've done this for years, part of my work and part of my job

and part of my writing. And so it's always interesting

to me how we think the whole world's becoming atheistic or

agnostic. And that's just not true in the

United States. The number of of atheists in the

United States has always been less than 5%.

It's not a very. So if you know a lot of them,

you just happen to know a lot of them, but they're they're really

are not that widespread. If you're in college, then you

might see a higher percentage on your campus, which is where some

of them, some of them who claim to be anyway and then later on

realize they're not etcetera. But even those who those

considering themselves members of religions far outnumbered non

believers. But listen to this.

Only then these were adults. So the 45% includes all ages,

but but only 30% of those surveyed regularly attend

worship services once a week. Now remember, this is all

religions. This isn't just Christianity.

So 30% attend some kind of service once a week, another 12%

once a month, 19% a few times a year, 11% said once a year, 29%

never attended any kind of formal worship service.

And so it's, it's always interesting how in the United

States of America, what you'll have when you talk about 74% of

these people around us who are not in church, it doesn't mean

that at one time they weren't many of these people would be

previously churched people. And so something happened either

in their heart or in their church life or something that

led them to become unchurched. Either the church failed them,

they failed the church, they failed Christ, something

happened in their life. And so many of these people are

people that we want to reach out to and get back, so to speak.

But the American Bible just released its 2025 State of the

Bible. It's an annual report.

They do often. He said it says nearly half of

American Christians, 45%, have not attended church in the past

six months. About 2/3 of American, and this

is just adults, 64% say they're Christian.

But of those, only 55% attend church.

But for Christians who do attend church, it's about 35% of

Americans. Higher church engagement led to

higher human flourishing, which is their wording.

In other words, their life is better.

So listen to this. People's lives improve when they

engage with their church, not just attending, but using their

gifts, developing relationships, and taking advantage of

opportunities to grow spiritually.

And so they go on to say our survey shows that church engaged

Christians have significantly less stress, less anxiety, less

loneliness, and more hope. For years now, we've seen the

same effects with Scripture engagement, but the church

provides a living environment where these factors can play

out. The pairing of the church and

the Bible is a powerful force, and we expect those who attend

weekly to be the most engaged at church.

But the striking detail here is the relatively small difference

between monthly attenders and those who attend maybe twice a

year. So some churches consider people

regular attenders if they show up once a month.

But here we see data to dispute that.

Whether you're you're talking about pastoral care, the use of

gift or growth opportunities, weekly attenders are more than

twice as likely to respond enthusiastically.

And so being a part of a community on a very regular

basis makes a huge difference. And so once a month really is no

different than twice a year in their study.

I'm not saying it's is as good, but I'm just saying

statistically. And so it's that weekly grind.

So you wonder why I harp on you so much every single week.

What percentage of participation am I after here and what do I

want you to be in? Thank you.

I might start crying. I want you in small groups.

Why? Because it's that community, a

fellowship and study together. That's the clue.

People come to church because of relationships often.

They stay in church because of relationships often.

And so it's that glue that holds it together.

And and I want to be high quality Bible studies or it's

kind of a mute point to even try to get you there.

We want it to be high quality Bible study, but we also want

you engaged in prayer and in ministry together.

Our reach strategy is coming this Sunday.

We're having huge training and we're going to show you how your

connect group can be far more than just a Bible study group.

It's going to be far more than that.

It's going to be life on life, discipleship and accountability

and ministry together. So be a part of that.

I know most of you here on on this session probably are.

I'm literally probably speaking to choir members, even though

they're in the back rehearsing and are not supposed to be in

here right now. You're supposed to listen to the

podcast. So you choir members who are

here and who are now listening to this or warrant and we're

listening to this podcast. Thank you for going to choir

practice. Anyway, so sometimes our beliefs

and our practices just don't match up right?

And so my prayer is that we act upon our faith and we live

according to God's truth. And we have to begin with these

primary mountains of faith. These are heels worth dying on,

which is what we've been talking about over the last several

weeks. Then study, come back and study

with me over the next few weeks and understand the heels and

mounds of identification. They're not unimportant, they're

significant doctrinal issues, but they're not about going to

heaven and salvation, but they are going to define you and your

life and your church and what you consider the Christian life.

So they're very important. So I and then get get together

with others in these in their small group so that you can

discuss things together even more.

But but remember, this is not some game of king of the hill.

So don't, don't come in here fighting over mole hills.

That's usually just a distraction.

And it normally just ends up getting somebody bruised and

dirty. And we don't want that.

This is about building up the church in unity.

This is about building up the church in love, graciousness,

forgiveness, and showing that and sharing that with a

massively unchurched community around us.

There are 10s of thousands of people who ought to be in this

room and they're not. And they're not going to come

unless we help them come. They're not just going to wander

in here on their own. We've got to reach out to them.

And so you be a part of that strategy with us.

Remember Ephesians 4 He says put on the new self created after

the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness and

be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another

as God in Christ forgave you. And so one of the things that

we're going to remember is both our heart and our attitude in

this, but we also are going to be searching out the truth of

God's word next week, as I mentioned, we'll be in

eschatology. We're going to talk about the

second coming. A primary issue is that it's

real. It's going to happen still

wrong. And so I bet it it is.

And we need to be ready. We need to occupy and work until

he comes. And so we're going to prepare

ourselves for that. You know, I remember when I was

when I was baptized, I was baptized with a a friend.

Remember, we grew up in the the capital of the Cherokee Nation

in Oklahoma. So my best friend growing up

Jaybird Buffalo meat and his his little brother Screechow.

They called him Ray, but he was Screechow Buffalo meat.

So Oahu, young Tiwiya. And so anyway, in this Cherokee

culture and we were actually baptized together.

Now just track with me for a second.

In fact, he pushed me to be baptized.

We were sitting in a church service today one day and he

goes, we need to go forward and be baptized.

And I looked at him. I said, you're crazy.

That wouldn't be cool. We were athlete kind of people

and that would just be embarrassing kind of nonsense.

So I wouldn't go and I made him not go that first week.

God let me live another week and the next week he kind of just

grabbed me and we were going. There wasn't a whole lot of

option. Jay was as big as I was or

bigger than we were going. So that night we got baptized,

which is not always my recommendation either.

We we actually do pre baptismal conversations and training here

before we baptize people. And there are people in the room

who can testify to that. And so not that we don't want

you to be baptized, but we certainly want you to understand

baptism, you know, etcetera. So anyway, we were baptized that

night. My mom and dad were living and

so they didn't like Baptist. But anyway, and I remember

getting baptized and it was very exciting.

I was very excited. Oh, it was great.

You know, I, you know, I felt like I could, I was ready to go

play ball that night. And, you know, those days I

could actually dunk a basketball and I was ready to really play

some ball. But anyway, we were really

excited. That's not the story.

The story is a few years later, Jay would come to me and tell me

that he didn't believe in God at all and considered himself an

atheist, even though in my early days after that, he was the guy

who pushed me to have a daily quiet time.

He's the guy that pushed me to read the Bible.

He's the guy that pushed me to be are you going to?

Because nobody in my family went to church, so I had to go to

church. Obama, are you going to be

there? Anybody you know?

You know, what do I need you to get you there?

You going to be in Sunday school or small group or whatever?

We didn't have cool names in those days.

And he and he pushed discipleship on me and he, He

pushed spiritual disciplines on me.

But then within just a matter of a couple years, he didn't

believe anything at all. And the last I ever heard from

him, he still didn't. He was an alcoholic and

miserable, divorced and didn't believe in a God.

This is more than a belief. This is the basis of life,

right? This is this is the anchor, this

is the glue. This is what's going to hold

your life together. How do I deal on that Help

series that we talk? How do I deal with anger?

How do I deal with anxiety? How do I deal with worry?

How do I deal with time? How do I deal with money?

How do I deal with work? How do I deal with all the stuff

we talked about in a former series that you can listen to?

How do I do any of that? The word of God, the Spirit of

God, the power of God in my life.

It's not simplistic, it's really complicated.

It's deep, it's intimate. And we're going to start here on

Sundays talking about what discipleship really means.

What does that really mean? Because I can stand up here all

day long and say be like Jesus, be like Jesus, be like.

But we got to know what that means.

So we're going to define discipleship very clearly.

This is what we mean by being a disciple at Inglewood.

Here's what it means to be a church member at Inglewood.

And our connect groups are going to get on board.

Our worship services tied together with that, Our

midweek's tied together with that.

Everything's connected to help you grow, but this is the the

anchor that will hold you together.

Don't ever, don't ever leave the primaries.

We can have lively discussion, we can poke at each other, we

can laugh together about the tertiaries, right?

But we got to hang with the primaries or we will indeed be

lost and blind and foggy and we'll never see clearly.

We need His help. Amen.

So let's pray together. Father, I thank you so much.

Just the fact that people come out and they sit so long to

listen and to learn. And Father, I thank you for that

hunger. I thank you for that desire in

their hearts, Father. Forgive me sometimes, Lord.

Well, maybe I don't share everything I wish I could.

But Lord, I pray that I've told him what you wanted me to

tonight. And I pray, Father, that you

will put into us a hunger, a panting, as the psalmist writes

that I would pant after that. I would thirst after that.

I would hunger after your truth and your presence in my life.

Father, You are saving people than our midst.

I've seen it with my own eyes. I've been there when it's

happened. And Father, I appreciate the

fact that your hand is on us and your blessing us, but Lord help

that to trickle down into my personal life to where every

day, every morning, every night, whatever, it works.

I'm in your word and I'm reading and I'm learning and I'm

digesting, but more than that, I'm applying.

This isn't just a study. This can't just be some

cognitive, intellectual experience.

It's got to be more holistic than that.

Father, you've got to touch us on the physical, emotional,

mental, relational and spiritual levels to our Father.

Every aspect, every dimension of our life is touched so that,

Father, we don't walk alone. We don't dare walk alone.

We know how stupid it is to walk alone, how dangerous it is to

walk alone. We're in a Dark World.

That's danger. We don't dare walk alone.

We're going to give the devil an opportune moment when we walk

alone. We got to walk together, We got

to walk together with you, with your word and with each other

and by the power of the Holy Spirit, who who empowers us and

fills us and guides us, Father protects US, warns us, convicts

us. Father, be our anchor, be our

rock, be our refuge. Father, I thank you for the

words of David. He knew the right words, Father,

and he sang them to you. And so, Father, I pray that

they'll become our words, that Father, we really do see you as

the light of our salvation. We really do see you as our hope

and that we are absolutely dependent.

Thank you, Father, for the privilege of just being here and

opening your word for a few minutes.

Bring us back Sunday to worship you.

Thank you so much for those who are listening online.

I really do truly appreciate those who've been working with

our children tonight, our students tonight who are in our

worship arts ministry tonight, who couldn't be here physically,

but Father, they're going to listen to this later.

Thank you all for serving. Thank you and for our guests and

for others who'll listen. For some who listen on the road,

for some who are listening in their cars, for some who are

listening as they walk, the Father, you just speak to them

and help us, Father, to be the church, the body, and the bride,

the Father you build. Thank you Father, for causing

that growth in Christ's name, Amen.

God bless you all. Thank you all so much.

Thank you so much for listening today.

And I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.